1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the production of a pharmaceutical composition for treating cancer, and to a method for treating a patient afflicted with cancer.
2. Related Prior Art
In the search for novel cancer therapies that can be used in conjunction with existing treatments, the use of virus-based therapies holds some promise (1). Viruses have evolved to infect cells and often destroy these cells through diverse mechanisms. Although a number of viruses have been used in the clinic so far, this approach has suffered from toxicity, infection of unrelated tissues, immunological side effects and, therefore, was abandoned (2). However, recombinant DNA technology offered new possibilities to use viruses in therapeutic approaches. Current attempts use replication-selective viruses (reviewed in 1). Such viruses should replicate selectively in dividing cells (3). However, although these viruses may rapidly spread in cell-culture monolayers, spread within solid tumors remains an unsolved problem (1).
The use of inactivated Parapoxvirus ovis for cancer therapies has been suggested previously (4).
Interferon-α (IFN-α) has previously been investigated with classical chemotherapeutics, i.e., cisplatin, vinclesine and dacarbacine. The combination of biologicals and cytotoxic chemotherapeutics is called biochemotherapy. After biochemotherapy, responder rates are up to 66% and, therefore, superior compared to cytotoxic chemotherapy (5).
The use of inactivated viruses for biochemotherapy in cancer therapies has not been reported.
As is clear from the abovementioned prior art, no therapeutic method has so far been disclosed which uses an inactivated virus as an immunomodulating agent and a classical cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agent as a biochemotherapy for cancer.